The ego is like the rose and also like the thorns which surround the rose. It takes the place of the thorns when it is not
cultivated, and it becomes a rose when it is refined.

When the ego remains in the condition of a thorn, more thorns come; and more and more, till it increases its thorns to such an
extent that everyone who touches that person is dissatisfied. We all have friends to whom we should be most grateful if they
would keep away from us. We love them, we like them, but we would be very glad if they would keep away. What is it? It is
the thorns that hurt.

In what way do these thorns manifest? They manifest in the form of words, of actions, of desires, in the form of manner. Why
does one feel annoyed with certain people in life, even before they have uttered one word? Because the thorn is pricking.
Perhaps that person will say, ‘But I have not said anything, I have not done anything,’ but he does not know that he has thorns;
there are perhaps so many that even before he utters one word, before he moves, his presence pricks us. It is a natural
outcome of the ego. Either the ego develops thorns, or it develops into a rose; and when it develops into a rose, then everyone
is attracted to it because of its beautiful petals, its delicacy, its fragrance, its color, its softness, its structure. Everything about it
is attractive, appealing, and healing.

For every soul there are four stages to pass through in order to come to the culmination of the ego, which means to reach the
stage of the rose.

The first stage is that a person is rough, thoughtless and inconsiderate. He is interested in what he wants and
in what he likes; as such he is naturally blind to the needs and wants of others. (more…)

Holding myself a certificate in psychology I am rather sceptical to many methods and ideas of psychological treatments. May be because I have found a more efficient way to deal with problems…may be. And even though my close and distant friends often want my psychological help, I never use any “techniques” because I believe that the heart knows better what to say.

Anyway, one of the things I find somewhat wrong is the popular treatment in trauma psychology as well as in conventional wisdom –to make the victim talk about the happening. News reports after school shootings and other such tragedies tell how specially trained trauma psychologists flood into the affected area to encourage people to talk through their feeling and fears of what has happened. But does it actually help?

I came across a very interesting study concerning responses to the terror attacks of 9/11, with results that may surprise you. Researchers at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, invited 2,138 people, most of whom were not directly exposed to the event, to express their thoughts and feelings on the day of the attack and for several days afterward. Over the next two years the research team did follow-up online inquiries to investigate the correspondents’ mental and physical health. They found that on average, those who chose to say little or nothing about their thoughts and feelings concerning the attack were actually better off than the people who talked about it. The measures of their well-being included physician-diagnosed ailments and levels of distress, including feeling helpless and symptoms of nervousness. (more…)

I came to Vienna 12 years ago and it has become the City of my Love in every sense of it. Over these years I worked and lived in different parts of this admirable Austrian capital and that does not make Vienna less attractive to me, just the opposite.

What fascinates me about Vienna:

– I stroll around it and I believe to know every building and tree on my way already so well… and yet every time I discover a new enchanting detail! Sometimes I suddenly come across a tiny unknown to me street in the middle of a district which I seem to know well for years…Vienna is like the life itself – I keep exploring it every day and it gets more and more interesting!

– Vienna loves me too! – I have always received any help I ever needed here and have never expeirenced any kind of the xenophobia which is being reported by many foreigners. I have amazing experiences with Austirans being heartfelt caring and understanding, and really nice… And no negative experiences at all.

I can give lectures and write poems about it…but somehow I feel that my recent pictures can express my attitude much better:

There comes a stage in the evolution of an illuminated
soul, when it begins to see the law hidden behind nature. To it the whole of life reveals its secret.

——–

Is law predominant, or love? Law is the habit; love is the being. Law is made; love was, is, and always will be.

——-

The soul covers its own truth with a thousand veils from its own eyes.

——-

The prophetic soul is like a fruit that is on the ground but still connected with the branch. The branch has bent and the fruit has touched the earth, but it has not lost connection with the stem

——-

The further we advance, the more difficult and more important our part in the symphony of life becomes; and the more conscious we become of this responsibility, the more efficient we become in accomplishing our task.

——-

By self-realization a man becomes larger than the universe. The world in which he lives becomes as a drop in the ocean of his heart.

——

A person, however learned and qualified in his life’s work, in whom gratitude is absent, is devoid of that beauty of character which makes personality fragrant. (more…)

Wikipedia: “Flow is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. Proposed by positive psychologistMihály Csíkszentmihályi, the concept has been widely referenced across a variety of fields – in the West. Interestingly, for millennia, practitioners of Eastern religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism have honed the discipline of overcoming the duality of self and object as a central feature of spiritual development. Eastern spiritual practitioners have developed a very thorough and holistic set of theories around overcoming duality of self and object, tested and refined through spiritual practice instead of the systematic rigor and controls of modern science.

The term “Flow” seems to represent well the state I want to post about now, however the describition of the flow I found in Wikipedia does not appeal to me at all – I found it rather confusing and too complicated.

I never trained on purpose to get into the “flow” but my present life is am amazing example how this can work, actually without you even thinking of it, even knowing of all these theories and science!

Let me give you some examples how it feels like:

-when I want to check my phone for an sms I am waiting for – the sms comes this very moment I touch the phone…

-when I am working I do nto feel I am working…

-when i look for a tel. number of somebody in my emails, at this very moment the email comes where this very person out of the blue suddenly sends me the number…

-when I realise I need some information I suddenly get it this very moment from a complete irrelevant source…

-when I listen to the music in the bus and watch the crowd passing by, my attention gets automatically attracted to a person who walks in the same rythm with this music, while none of other pedestrians walk in the same rhythm… (more…)